Both sides present parts of recorded interviews with gunman

Parts of recorded interviews with the man who killed three members of a Darien family were presented by both sides Wednesday as the prosecution rested and the defense began its case in the DuPage County trial of Johnny Borizov.

On the 10th day of the trial, jurors first viewed a March 2010 recording of prosecutors interviewing Jacob Nodarse, the man they say killed the three people at Borizov's behest. Borizov, 31, of Willow Springs, is charged with murder and solicitation of murder.

During the interview, Nodarse said Borizov wove a credible tale in the weeks before March 2, 2010, when Nodarse broke into the home of Jeffrey and Lori Kramer and shot them to death, along with their son, Michael, 20,

"He painted the story so vividly and for so long, it seemed so believable," Nodarse said on the recording, made in the weeks after the slayings.

Nodarse testified last week that he believed his own life and that of his family had become endangered because he had become embroiled in the custody battle between his friend Borizov and Angela Kramer, the daughter of Jeffrey and Lori Kramer.

Borizov had also made Nodarse believe that he ran a criminal crew whose members had been drawn into the custody battle, Nodarse testified. He said Borizov told him the crew was demanding that the Kramers be murdered, or Nodarse would face retribution.

Borizov's attorneys contend that Nodarse, who has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder, killed the Kramers on his own and then, following his arrest, was manipulated by police into implicating Borizov.

The defense played the first part of interviews that Nodarse gave at a Florida police station two days after the slayings. Nodarse, whose family lives in the state, had driven there after the shootings and was taken into custody.

On the recording, he initially told officers that he only learned of the Kramer murders through friends, and that he had not seen Michael Kramer for several months. Michael Kramer had been a friend before he and Nodarse fell out over Borizov's alleged treatment of Kramer's sister Angela.

Nodarse confessed later in the same interview. He testified that he initially lied because he still feared for his family's safety.